Tuttle distiller makes legal moonshine

TUTTLE — Distiller Ricky Sowers first became fascinated with making his own alcohol as a home-schooled teenager learning about the chemistry of ethanol.

By age 16, he had found a local moonshiner to mentor him. Working with a still he made himself in a barn off a country road near Tuttle, Sowers says he is now Oklahoma's first legal distiller of moonshine.

“I turned a hobby into a business because I thought it would be best to do that rather than going to jail,” he said.

He and his wife Georgia Sowers' company is called Okie Shine. Since getting the company up and running about four months ago, Okie Shine's products are already available in about 380 liquor stores and 60 bars across the state.